


Lions and Magnets and Neuroanalytic Semi-Metallic Fluid Conductors, Oh My!

by psiten



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Engineering, Everyone is a dork, Fake Science, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-11
Updated: 2016-11-11
Packaged: 2018-08-30 07:56:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8525026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psiten/pseuds/psiten
Summary: "I've been analyzing the inputs that help link us each up to our Lions and that turn our bayards into weapons, and sure, a lot of it's based on this quintessence stuff that Allura and Coran have been talking about, which, you know, I kind of get and I kind of don't get? But some of it's also actual neural linkage through surface-active reception! Like, have you ever wondered how those levers in the Lions work for literally everything? Well, I checked for neural conduits like on the bayards, and boom, when I found them, I had an idea--"
  "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Hunk put out his hands, because a lot of things could happen when Pidge said she had an idea, and he had to be sure which way this was going. "First: is the Castle about to explode?"
A little late night science never hurt anybody! Just ask the local genius duo!





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [starticker](https://archiveofourown.org/users/starticker/gifts).



> I saw in your request that you like some angst with happy endings, but I just didn't have any angst to go in this idea... I hope the pure fluff is okay!

     Hunk woke up, as sometimes happened, to the unmistakable sound of Pidge trying to re-hack her way through whatever improvements he'd executed on his space lock since the last time she'd struck. She had major skills. It wasn't like he sucked at programming or anything -- far from it -- but she was just _absurd_ in terms of talent. He could never beat her with straight-up computer programming, which was why his new lock designs depended on limitations in human perception itself. If he didn't have such a personal love for creating mechanisms that fooled the senses, he'd never have a sense of personal security in his Lion Castle bedroom. At least this way, he could treat Pidge's lock picking attempts like her version of ringing the doorbell. How the other members of the team ever got a good night's shut-eye, he couldn't say. Presumably, she had free entrance to all of their bunks, but they never talked about her using it.

     Oh hey! Maybe she didn't pick their locks because they were more likely to launch into a lecture about personal space than to get into a locking technology arms race with her? So this whole lock picking/lock improving dance was, like, a "them" thing? Hunk had never thought about it that way before. Neat!

     When he opened the door, she yanked her wire clips out of his pried-off locking panel. "Hey, Pidge. What's up?"

     "Nothin' much. So Hunk... How much do you know about neuromechanics?"

     "Uhh, how much do I need to know?"

     "Not sure yet. But I've been analyzing the inputs that help link us each up to our Lions and that turn our bayards into weapons, and sure, a lot of it's based on this quintessence stuff that Allura and Coran have been talking about, which, you know, I kind of get and I kind of don't get? But some of it's also actual neural linkage through surface-active reception! Like, have you ever wondered how those levers in the Lions work for literally everything? Well, I checked for neural conduits like on the bayards, and _boom_ , when I found them, I had an idea--"

     "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Hunk put out his hands, because a lot of things could happen when Pidge said she _had an idea_ , and he had to be sure which way this was going. "First: is the Castle about to explode?"

     "Not to my knowledge." She scrunched up her face, a look that usually meant, "But also I can't make any guarantees that I won't blow up your door if you don't listen to my theory," which meant this was a serious science experiment and not some kind of cool plot to see if they could build a localized warp-space roller coaster for funsies. Oh well.

     She sighed, clearly in no mood to be delayed from the sweet pursuit of a programming breakthrough. "You're about to say you want breakfast or something, aren't you."

     "Actually, I was going to ask if I could put on my pants, or if night-shirt-style bottom ventilation was somehow required, but yeah, space breakfast would be better for a properly functional brain hole. How about I whip us both up something and meet you in the lab in twenty centi-tick... things."

     The girl wonder nodded, or at least sighed again and shrugged. It was _like_ a nod. A Pidge nod. "Fine. Half an hour. Science lab. This'll be good, I promise." She stalked off, yelling through the doors at the end of the corridor. "And whatever breakfast you bring had better not be made of green goo!"

     "Oh come on! Who do you think I am?!"

~//~

     Flexing his shoulder against the phantom pressure fed into his nerves by the bio-feedback cuff he and Pidge had mocked up, Hunk successfully got his metal limb prototype to shove Pidge's metal limb prototype a few degrees toward her side of the table. All their experience hacking into Galra robots had taught them more than they'd expected about attempting to interface actual human nerves with a computer, so tonight had been ridiculously productive. A few twists on standard hydraulic action that used mag-lev technology instead of liquids so they could make the whole unit air-tight (eventually) and totally eliminate operative friction (and thus the need to constantly maintain the parts with oil), and as Pidge would say, _boom_! Mind-operated mechanical space limb testing via robotic arm wrestling! Perhaps the most fun way ever to figure out which mag-lev coils had the most efficient reactions.

     One thing Hunk had not counted on, though, was their machines having approximately equal force feedback, so the only way either of them made headway in this arm wrestling contest was through focus. He might have stronger arms than Pidge, but her ability to focus was second to none. Hunk found himself straining so hard to push her robot hand with _his_ robot hand, he didn't even hear the laboratory door whoosh open.

     "What the heck are you two _doing_?" Keith yelped. "Have you been here all night?!"

     Hunk looked away for just half a second from the extremely scientific robotic arm wrestling match, and the metal arm thing neuro-linked to his flesh and bone arm musculature collapsed under Pidge's laser-like concentration.

     "Haha! Victory again!" yelled the hacker squirt.

     "Nope, doesn't count. Keith distracted me, I demand a rematch."

     "Rematch? Where we're taking this test, there are no rematches!"

     "That's true," Hunk agreed, "but there is such a thing a better mechanical system getting owned in a single test because the person wielding that system is distracted -- and these tests are to determine whose arm functions better, so _in the name of science_ , I have to insist on a rematch. And now that Keith is here, he can judge."

     "Judge what?!" Keith yelled, stepping around the strippings of various computer parts that Hunk and Pidge had retrieved from inventory (and scavenged off of things they'd salvaged throughout their adventures). "I was just walking down to the training deck for some early sparring, and I heard you two in here. I couldn't tell if you were fighting each other or stuck under a washing machine, but those were some seriously odd noises. And... you made arm wrestling machines?"

     "Not just arm wrestling machines," Pidge told Keith. "Fully mobilized artificial systems that read nerve impulses from the brain through the nerve endings in the skin to create motion..."

     She wiggled her mechanism's fingers to demonstrate, while Hunk picked up the verbal part of the explanation. "We were able to replicate some of the neural-responsive properties of the Lions and the bayards, and reverse engineer a system that allows the mechanical hands to sync up with the mental input of the user. It's totally seamless--"

     "--and we're pretty sure we can make the power self-renewing, although that'll take awhile--"

     "--but, you know, you gotta test the prototypes, refine the system--"

     "--it'll just take some more work before--"

     Keith cut both of them off with a punch to a wall, yelling, "All right!" at the top of his lungs. Hunk and Pidge shut up, and listened while Keith found his words. "I get it, you're building Shiro a surprise replacement for his Galra arm. That's... honestly really awesome, and I wish I could help you. But do you think arm wrestling is the way to do it?"

     Pidge met Hunk's eye over the table, and after a brief moment of almost psychic clarity, they both nodded.

     "Yep," Hunk confirmed. "Gotta test muscle responsiveness somehow."

     "Are we supposed to _not_ make sure the mechanism works before we hook it up to Shiro's nervous system, and just hope for the best?!" Pidge yelled, throwing her hands over her head.

     Blocking Pidge's prototype metal arm from klonking him in the face, Keith shot back, "Well, you've clearly got large muscle movements figured out no problem, and those are easier to control. What you have to worry about in the middle of battle is fine motor control. If anything, you should be _thumb_ wrestling, not arm wrestling."

     "That's brilliant!" Pidge gasped. "Keith, you're a genius!" And Hunk had to agree. He never would've thought of thumb wrestling in a million years.

     Keith waved over his shoulder on the way out the door. "Just do me a favor and make sure that thing works right. I'll be on the training deck if you make something you want to give a real, honest to goodness workout."

     Hunk waved back, metal arm shooting up into the air. "Thanks, Keith! If you want breakfast, I put some leftovers in the space fridge!"

     "No problem!"

     No sooner had he left, though, than Lance came sauntering in. "Hey, Hunk. Hey, Pidge. Did you say something about space leftovers?"

     "Oh yeah," Hunk told him. "I made this thing that's kind of like potatoes au gratin? Except with the noodle tubers, so it looks like mac and cheese. You better make sure you get some before Shiro finds it and eats it all."

     Speaking of which, it was a good thing Shiro was probably still doing push-ups and/or recon. At this rate, they'd never be able to keep the arm a secret. If Lance found out what they were up to, he'd tell everyone anyway, so they might be doomed. The next few moments were key, because his friend and fellow Paladin was eyeing their mechanical array askance.

     "What're you two crazy kids up to this time?" Lance asked.

     "Uhhh..."

     Pidge jumped in with a shrug and, "Mechanical thumb wrestling? Seemed like fun."

     " _Nice_ ," said Lance, nodding his mark of approval. "I call winner! Just let me rustle up some of that delicious space mac and cheese a la Hunk, and I'll be right back!"

     Whew. That definitely could've gone a lot worse.

~//~

     "You guys..."

     With a sniffle, Hunk watched Shiro tear up at the sight of his new arm moving in time with his thoughts. Glowing blue and silver when he and Pidge had built it, a pattern of black patches appearing to match his Paladin armor once it was installed. The attachment process almost failed at the last minute when Hunk had realized that neither of their technical expertises extended to anything near enough medical knowledge to remove the implanted Galra tech, but luckily Coran turned out to be a super-wiz at bio-mechazoid implantation stuff.

     Or, if not a super-wiz, at least he knew enough about field medicine and space engineering that he didn't break Shiro. Now, they officially had their team leader separated from the potentially mind-controlling effects of whatever implants the Druids had put in that arm, and boy didn't he look happy! While the whole crew cried happy tears, watching Shiro like six proud parents of one super tall, buff, handsome toddler, their leader launched into a series of punches and flips, complete with yells of, "Ha!" and, "Take that!" It looks like he was adapting just fine to any changes in balance or alignment.

     Group hugs were definitely in order. Scooping up Keith, Lance, and of course Pidge, Hunk squealed, "Isn't this the best?! It actually worked! I mean, we'll still have to monitor performance and make sure there aren't any bugs, but--"

     Pidge patted him on the shoulder before she slipped out of his grip back to the floor. "We can take the win for today, I think."

     "Nice job, guys," Keith added. "Seriously."

     Pinching both their cheeks, Lance laughed, "The two best geniuses in the Universe! What the heck, you guys! You rock! So what's the new plan for hacking into Galra computers now that Shiro's gonna have this new Voltron arm instead?"

     Hunk and Pidge shared a _look_. They had definitely never discussed that. Never. Not once. Oops.

     "Galra arm on a stick?" Pidge suggested with a shrug. "Like, until we can do enough dissection to reverse-engineer the inputs."

     "Will that work?" Hunk asked. "I mean, what if it has to be hooked to a person? Or at least a mind?"

     "We've used detached Galra arms before. I'm pretty sure there's some kind of power source in there, and it should be the tech codes, not the brain, that's letting us in. Besides, it's just too risky to let any brain sync with that thing."

     Hunk thought about it, and shrugged right back. "Okay! Galra arm on a stick, it is!"

     Meanwhile, off near the training targets, bright blue-white flashes lit up the deck with a very distinct sound. It was a sound none of them could forget.

     "Did something just go, _blam blam blam_?" Keith asked.

     "Yeah," Hunk said, while everyone around him chimed into a chorus of variations on, "I definitely heard a _blam blam blam_ ," and they all turned to see Shiro holding up a literal finger gun while giant holes in the targets smoked.

     "I can't believe you even made it transform into a gun!" Shiro said with a grin. "You guys thought of everything! Thanks to you, I guess I'll never be... _dis-armed_!"

     Their leader stood there, looking very pleased with himself, and four out of the six people watching groaned into their hands. Hunk and Pidge didn't have that luxury.

     "Did you...?" Hunk whispered.

     Pidge shook her head. "Nope. So I'm guessing that wasn't you."

     "So. We accidentally made a neurally linked thought-morphing weapon hand."

     "Don't worry," his partner in accidental technological advances told him. "We have a perfect explanation for why we might have to, say... ask Shiro to stress test the arm for us while we're around to watch, troubleshoot, and do tweaks if something actually _bad_ happens."

     "We do?" Because he wasn't so sure they did, and now he suddenly had no confidence that the arm they'd just put on Shiro wouldn't, for example, _suddenly explode_.

     "Yeah," said Pidge. "Repeat after me: _beta testing_."

     He picked her up in another bone-crushing hug. "Beta testing! Pidge! You're a genius!"

     "Right back at you, dude."


End file.
